The Affordable Care Act: Feminism Moving Forward

The Affordable Care Act

One of the reasons many girls today don’t identify as feminists is because there are quite a few of us who are convinced that men and women are totally equal. The 1970’s took care of all of our political and social battles, teens reason, looking to mothers who work to the same degree and prestige as their fathers and male classmates who they largely equal or surpass in intelligence. What exactly are feminists fighting for, they might wonder, and write us off as never-satisfied perpetual complainers.

Well. Even if we completely disregard the fact that this standpoint can really only occur to girls of first-world countries, and within those countries to girls of middle-upper classes, there are still a lot of political and economic disparities that effect all of us. For example, there’s still a wage gap - while girls may see their mothers working alongside their fathers, they may be surprised by their own paychecks as compared to their male counterparts in just a few years. Another huge issue is reproductive health – we take the current rights we have over own bodies for granted, not realizing that there are plenty of people fighting to have them taken away from us, and that they could disappear at any minute.

However, while when closely examined it becomes clear that the fight for women rights still has a long way to go, it’s equally important to celebrate our accomplishments. Who wants to support/join a movement that’s not making any headway in their long, sobering checklist of goals?

A year ago, the Affordable Care Act was passed. This Act, amongst other benefits, includes provisions that will improve women’s reproductive health. According to the National Women’s Law Center, this Act will: “improve access to health insurance coverage for maternity care and family planning services (it will make prescription birth control more affordable), making it easier for states to expand Medicaid coverage of family planning.” However, at the same time that this is a great victory for women in this country, there are still people launching campaigns opposing the Act, and trying to amend and nullify some of it’s great policy.

The bottom line is this: as feminists, we can’t just linger on all the work we have yet to do, and we can’t rely on raising awareness about our cause by focusing on the negative. We also have to acknowledge the positive and celebrate our victories, such as the passage of the Affordable Care Act. It’s the job of our generation – teenage and young feminists – to balance both of these realities. We must maintain a positive and optimistic outlook while at the same time remaining vigilant to protect our victories, and the Affordable Care Act is a great reminder of this mission.

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NWOslave @ at 4:30 pm, March 24th, 2011

Well I actually took the time watch the affordable care act…ohhh the happy music played and it all sounded sooooo wonderful. The best part of course is how it exponentially expands the size and power of the Government. And as we all know, when the Government runs stuff it’s all free. I mean Obama pays for that, right?

Oh yea lets not forget about the “wage gap.” We gotta beat that dead horse thats been debunked about a million times. Tell me, when will even one of you step up to the plate and say, “the wage gap is bullshit?” Can just one of you women who comment here actually tell the truth?

Heres a quote from the article…”making it easier for states to expand Medicaid coverage of family planning.” The question I have is why does one need to “plan” for a family? A 100 years ago people had 4, 5 and more children and were able to afford it, and they didn’t even have a master plan. Since things are so much better today, what do you need a “plan” for?

Pay particular attention to chapter 9 to find out where the “planning” aspect of parenting comes from. I’d try to explain it but as this article states, “mothers who work to the same degree and prestige as their fathers and male classmates who they largely equal or surpass in intelligence.” I was hoping since all womens intelligence surpasses or at the very least equals my own, you might explain it to me.

Halle @ at 7:22 pm, March 24th, 2011

Great article Julie! Its good to focus on the positives and think of how far we’ve come!
NWO- I read the chapter 9 for the link you listed hoping it would provide some understanding but I’m still confused about what you are talking about planning. I thought that the chapter was very interesting and forward thinking for the time. I especially thought phrases like “For example, we see no justification for a situation where newspapers accept advertisements for X-rated movies, while advertisements for birth control methods are unacceptable.” were very true. Please explain your statements and how they relate to the commission.

NWOslave @ at 8:53 pm, March 24th, 2011

@Halle…I’m glad to hear you’ve read the Commissions Report or at least part of it. It surprises me you don’t find it a bit unsettling that the Rockefeller Commision, (A private entity) “recomended” the US Government give so many billions of dollars towards, abortion services, contraception in public schools, sex education, sterilization. They also were THE reason the Comstock laws were repealed.

I should have asked you to continue reading, chapters 10, 11, really all of them to gain a true understanding.

Keep in mind, “The Commission” a private entity, dictated to the US Government what policy to enact and how much of the taxpayers money to place in these programs, and guess what? Thats exactly what our Government did.

Perhaps you didn’t know that the Rockefeller Foundation is the founder of Planned Parenthood, the CFR, (Council on Foreign Relations, The executive branch of the public education system since 1913, (all learning material for the PE system must be authorised by the Rockefeller Foundation), The founder and funding of feminism, The ADL, The JDL, The ACLU, Affirmative Action, NOW.

These are just a few of the Government Agencies that they OWN. I find this a bit odd myself. I could give you links for all of the above but I find that if someone wants to learn, they’ll do the research and learn even more along the way.

Since you seem genuinely interested, I’m going to ask a rhetorical question and see if you agree with my conclusion.

So this article states women are underpaid, even though every study done refutes this because on average women work six hours less a week. Also, no one can deny men do all the dangerous jobs, which is why 96% of workplace deaths are men. Surely no one could justify paying the woman secretary in the office the same as a man 200 feet in the air on the scaffolding. He’s risking his life.

Now in politics women say, “look there aren’t as many women politicians” yet women are 53% of the population, (men die in those dangerous jobs so theres not as many men). So really, women could in theory vote only women into office.

So back to the billion dollars for AA, a division of the Rockefeller Foundation. Since women don’t take those dangerous jobs, (for obvious reasons) even though Government mandates would force any company to hire them. And more women aren’t in office because women didn’t vote them in.

Doesn’t this mean that there isn’t any sexism in employment? And if thats the case why does AA garnish more money every year than the previous year. The answer is simple, if they ever said there isn’t sexism in employment they lose that one billion dollar a year funding.

AA can never let on there is no pay gap. They’ll say theres a gap in female miners, (even though no woman wants to be a miner). They’ll say theres a gap in female roofers, sewer workers, construction, installation, machinists, mechanics. The entire livleyhood of these groups is to PROMOTE the illusion of hatred and oppression where none exists. Because if they don’t they lose all those 100s of billions of dollars.

Do you agree?

Halle @ at 11:18 pm, March 24th, 2011

Thanks for explaining how the report and your conclusion were connected. What you are saying makes sense IF every fact you state in the beginning before the conclusions is 100% correct. I think that when we say that there is a pay gap, it isn’t between a man in scaffolding and a woman secretary. There is a pay gap between a man and a woman doing the same exact job. Also, you say that men take all the “dangerous” jobs. I would have to disagree. While I don’t know the exact statistics, and I do agree that there are probably more men in jobs like construction than woman, I think it is unfair to say that they are ALL taken by men. Also, the death rate from jobs such as these is too small to feasibly impact the population percentages of males and females.
Also, I have to make another point about the women in politics. When you say that there aren’t many women in politics because women don’t vote them in, that is only scratching the surface of the problem. Yes, if every woman in the country voted for the same woman politican then yes, she would most likely be voted into office. However, you must take into consideration the fact that not everyone votes. I’m almost positive that when the numbers come in that women don’t have a greater number of voters than men. The numbers are probably very close in quantity.
Additionally, in America we have very diverse party lines, so getting every women who votes to vote for the same candidate is almost impossible. Even if every election included equal numbers of men and women candidates not every woman would necessarily agree with every position of every woman candidate within their party. So, you say, then whats the problem voting for men? Well what I personally have a problem with is the stigma attached with women in positions of power in any job. You might say its not true, but that would be ignoring a good chunk of the population, in the US and especially elsewhere, who may subconsciously see a powerful woman as a threat. I notice people I know many times regarding a powerful woman as “bitchy” but a powerful man as just doing his job and taking control. Of course, this isn’t everyone, and I don’t mean to just sound like I’m complaining, but there are enough poeple who DO think this way to prevent many woman from overall succeeding in politics.
And in regard to the commission paper, I will definetly read the other chapters in the next few days when I have some time to sit down and read it. I think that just from the small bit I have read that the commission was doing a good thing for America. I honestly have no problem with them telling the government how to proceed if they decided to act as they did. However, you should take this with a grain of salt- I am not completely well- versed in politics as others may be, especially for things that occured in the 70s, but I do try to stay on top of what I can! Sorry if this got a little long!

Halle @ at 11:19 pm, March 24th, 2011

Oh and sorry for the spelling errors- I’m a little tired!

Ryan @ at 6:12 am, March 25th, 2011

@NWOslave:

Keep in mind these girls here are teenagers. They believe what they are told and believe the world is an honest place. They also believe that The Raw Wage Gap is calculated for the same job. They also are not aware that single childless women earn on average 8% more than the men their age in every major city in the United States.

Halle @ at 6:15 pm, March 25th, 2011

Another thing we are here is supportive. Despite not everyone always agreeing, we try to be civil and polite, and if you can’t do that they I suggest you leave. Its fine to have different opinons, just don’t talk down to people. I was honestly trying to discuss views. I’m interested in what other people have to say.

NWOslave @ at 6:44 pm, March 25th, 2011

@Halle…I appreciate your objective opinion of my anaysis. I usually just get the old, “don’t feed the troll.” Hopefully I’ve given you a little “food for thought” that every thing might not be quite as it appears.

Halle @ at 8:13 pm, March 26th, 2011

Sure! I think a troll is someone who just is plain rude with no basis to what they are saying. I am honestly interested to have discussions with people! But, I do stick with the opinons I stated in my comment in response but what you said was definetly “food for thought” and I will read more of that Commission you suggested.

Renee @ at 5:41 pm, June 14th, 2011

But the wage crap…i mean gap is bullshit…and the whole “men in washinghton is out to get us” thing is extremely paranoid sounding…if you’ve ever been on any femenist site EVER it’s built on never-satisfied competual complaining

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